MISTLETOE
by Saeshmea
Summary: Every year Dumbledore covers the school halls with mistletoe, this year he has just hanged twelve flowers, what's the trick? Meanwhile, a couple who's never followed the tradition is just finding out some hidden feelings... will they kiss? SS-MM-AD .
1. Chapter 1

**Mistletoe, a short Christmas tale.**

The first week of December, every year since it was found, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry got ready for Christmas with the help of all its inhabitants. The students hanged the decorations in their respective common rooms; Filch and Hagrid carried giant trees inside the castle; Flitwick and Pomona dressed them with shiny balls and colorful figures; McGonagall made the list of students who would be staying for the Holidays and meanwhile, Dumbledore reserved for himself his favorite task: hanging the mistletoe.

* * *

><p><em><strong>December 1981<strong>_

"_Albus, we're here to negotiate" Minerva said after intruding the Headmaster's office followed by some of the staff members._

"_Negotiate?" Dumbledore asked glancing at the crowd in front of him "What about?"_

"_About this Christmas decoration…"_

"_We want someone else to hang the mistletoe this year." Madam Hooch said seeing her friend wasn't getting to the point._

"_Why would you want that? I like doing it" the headmaster replied like a kid._

"_We know you enjoy yourself with the mistletoe…" Minerva talked as if she was actually responding to a child "but last year you covered the school corridors with those damn flowers" she lost her temper "and we don't want that again"._

"_I don't understand" the old man crossed his arms behind his desk. _

"_Albus you get crazy with the mistletoe tradition… You can't expect us to kiss with the father of a student, or ghosts to kiss with house elfs every time they meet under a flower… it's ridiculous" Minerva tried to explain. _

"_You're exaggerating"_

"_She's not... I like Christmas traditions too, headmaster, but I don't like to see my husband sharing his breath with every witch in the school!" Pomona pointed. _

"_I had no problem with that" Filius muttered, and his wife stared at him making not just him but all the members in the room shut up with no need of words._

"_What about…" Minerva broke the silence looking first at her boss and then at her colleagues to make sure that they were still listening "… if you promise us to hang up less mistletoe flowers this year"_

"_Alright" Albus agreed, "If you all promise to follow the tradition with no exceptions"_

* * *

><p><em><strong>December 1982<strong>_

_Inside the teacher's room, after lunchtime, all the staff members were waiting for the Headmaster; who came in with his usual smile._

"_Have a sit, please" offered his deputy._

"_Have I done anything wrong?" he wondered._

"_The corridors are covered in mistletoe again… and that's not what we agreed last year" Rolanda talked._

"_If I remember it right, in exchange for me hanging less flowers everybody had to follow the tradition with no exceptions… but nobody did."_

"_I did" Sybill said._

"_Of course you did, you spent the entire December running into the new Defense against the Dark Arts professor in purpose." Hooch said and she and Madam Pomfrey giggled._

"_Girls, please… this wasn't the matter that took us here." Minerva remind to her colleagues looking back at them and then to the Headmaster "Albus, this is a stupid tradition to have in the school…"_

"_It's not" he interrupted her._

"_It is" Severus Snape talked for the first time._

"_But if anybody kisses then it's not funny" Dumbledore regained his childish tone like every year._

"_Well then, let's negotiate."_

* * *

><p><strong>This Christmas<strong>

This year he wouldn't wait for his staff to ambush him. No, this year he would have the first and the last word about the mistletoe.

It was Friday, first of December, and like every end of week all the teacher met after dinner to talk about their classes and students. The headmaster was the last to join them; he wanted everybody to be comfortably sitting down once he came in to say what he had to say.

"Good evening, my friends" he began "I beg your attention, please". Everybody looked at their boss with curiosity. "I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that this year I'm just going to hang up twelve mistletoe flowers around the castle" after those words the room became a noisy whisper wondering what he was up to.

"What's the trick" McGonagall was the first to dare ask it loudly.

"There's no trick." the headmaster answered.

"Oh, come on, last year you made Severus stay for holidays because he never kissed anyone under the mistletoe" Septima reminded him.

"Yes, none of us like to spent Christmas with these bunch of little monsters" Rolanda added.

"That's not a punishment, Ro" Minerva observed.

"Talk for yourself, Minerva… you stay every year voluntarily" Pomona replied "but some of us have family waiting for us outside".

Dumbledore cleared his throat to make his voice be heard again, "As I've said, there'll be a very few flowers around the castle and if you meet under them, I invite you to rather follow or not the tradition. Good night."

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

The next morning, the potions master woke up at the same time as usual. He got dressed, brushed his black hair, took his wand and left his rooms. At the other side of his door, he met a couple of young slytherins stuck by their lips, above them a mistletoe flower was moving on circles on the air. Never losing his temper, he separated the teenagers with a move of wand and made his way to the great hall cursing on his boss' name, sure that he hadn't hang the plant in front of his office by chance.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

When she reached the top of the stairs, Minerva was surprised by the sweet image of her friend Pomona bending down to give her husband a morning kiss under the mistletoe. Their small rounded noses where tickling each other's and their hands were entwined on the air. She smiled and kept walking not willing to interrupt their moment.

Down the stairs, she almost crashed with Severus, who was coming from the dungeons.

"Good morning" she said

"Not until now" he replied.

"What's the matter today?" she asked as they crossed the school hall.

"It's this Christmas spirit I can't stand," he told "In a month I'll be better". She giggled and he noticed she was carrying something "Is that this months' _Transfigurations today_ magazine?" he asked, as he knew she received it monthly but rarely watched her bring it downstairs.

"Oh, right!" she exclaimed while they crossed the big wooden doors "I was actually bringing it to you" she said "I was reading it this morning and found this interesting article about new uses for Dragon saliva I thought you'd like to have a look to." And she handed him the magazine.

"Thank you" he said, accepting it before they separated to occupy their respective sits.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Albus Dumbledore had slept a very few hours that night because he'd been looking for the best places to hang the mistletoe flowers that year. On the morning, he'd been happy to watch so many couples following the old tradition of sharing a kiss under them. Students, ghosts, elfs, teachers… everybody had some love to give and to take.

Maybe it was that intoxication of love what make him found it that morning for the first time after so many years in a place where he'd never imagined it before.

"Good morning" he said to his deputy when she sat next to him to have some breakfast.

"Good morning, Albus" she replied with a nice tone, grabbing a toast.

"May I ask you something" he wondered.

"Of course" she invited his curiosity while serving her cup some tea.

"What do you think of Severus?"

Minerva's hand trembled and the tea was spilled all over the table. "I'm sorry" she apologized cleaning the mess with her wand.

"It's fine" the headmaster calmed her. "So, I wasn't wrong, I did see something on your eyes"

"Sorry?"

"When you looked at Severus"

"I was just handing him a magazine," she said.

"No, that was what your hands were doing… Your eyes were trying to guess his thoughts"

"Oh, for Merlin's sake Albus, what is in your drink? Severus is a nice man, but he was my student and I don't look him in any weird way"

"Love is anything but weird, my dear."

She didn't replied, but her eyes gazed at the right corner of the table, where Severus was sipping some juice. When his glass met the wood, his eyes looked for hers and she turned around to Rolanda and Sybill.

* * *

><p><em><strong>December 1980<strong>_

_He was going to the Headmaster's office when he crashed with someone in the middle of the hall._

"_I'm so sorry" he said bending down to help the woman take her papers back. When he handed them to her he realized she was the transfiguration teacher "I'm sorry Professor Mc-, Minerva" he corrected himself._

"_It's fine, Severus" she giggled and they stood up again "It happened to me all the time when I began to work with Albus. I know it's hard to suddenly be your old teachers' colleagues"_

"_It is" he said; his eyes never leaving her lips, which he'd never seen smiling during his student years._

_She looked up at him to say something else but her eyes kept looking at the ceiling, he wondered what the matter was and followed her eyes to the mistletoe flower floating above their heads._

"_Dumbledore has hanged them all around the castle," he said to break their sudden silence; "I think it's not an appropriate tradition to follow in a school with teenage students with revolutionized hormones". _

_She laughed; shyly and shortly, but he'd made her laugh. They looked at each other._

"_Fortunately we're not teenagers," she said._

"_No, we're not" he replied trying not to lose his temper, not to show any response to that charm she radiated now that she wasn't his professor anymore._

"_What about if instead of kissing we shake hands every time we run into each other under the mistletoe?"_

"_Sound suitable to me" and he held out his hand to her, who wrapped it with her thin and cold fingers._

…

TO BE CONTINUED…

A/N: I never imagined this would take me more than one part, so I hope you like it even if it should have been shorter. I've written better stories, I know it, but I like the plot and I hope you like it too even if I don't know how many times I've mentioned the words _hang _and _mistletoe_. I just don't know any synonyms for them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Mistletoe, a short Christmas tale, 2**

…

During his first class of the morning, Severus took the time to read that article Minerva had recommended him while the third-year students tried to make a potion against headache in groups of three. After taking ten points from both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw with no reason, he achieved the silence he needed in the room to pay attention to hi lecture. The article about Dragon's saliva was indeed very interesting, and once he finished he kept going through the pages of the magazine, curious about the reason why his colleague read it every beginning of month religiously. He couldn't help noticing the notes she had written down on the page edges. An exclamation mark indicated something was interesting; a question mark, that the information was doubtful or even wrong… she had even underlined the grammatical errors and corrected the spelling mistakes; just as a teacher would do with a class test. He laughed silently at the thought of it and kept reading. Most of the articles were about transfiguration spells and potions, but there was also a magic history section, a couple of pages dedicated to society wizards and witches; and also a part where readers' letters were published and in which the potion's master was surprised by finding his friend's name.

_Dear Clarckson_,

_I'll be gladly surprised the day when I read your magazine and don't feel the urge of sending a review. This time, I write to advise the readers of last months' Transfiguration Today that Miss. Hall didn't explained herself right when she claimed to have discovered the Black-to-white chocolate spell, since it was already included in the transfiguration spells encyclopedia of 1784, but not in the posterior 1801's. The article about the wood-to-paper transfiguration spell was also wrong, not just because it was wrongly spelled, but because it didn't say you need also a couple drops of water to make it work. To finish, I'd like to point out that I tried the spell Mr. Willis proposed last month and it didn't work, so I invite him to even come to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to teach it to me personally, or even to write an apology for his failure. _

_Yours faithfully, _

_Professor Minerva McGonagall._

* * *

><p>She was coming out her classroom when almost crashed with a dark shadow.<p>

"Severus!" she said gaining her breath back "You startled me… Can I help you?"

"I just wanted to give your magazine back" he handed the paper to her and she placed it on top of the books and parchments she was carrying.

"Thank you, you didn't need to hurry this much"

"It was a nice reading, specially your notes and letter to the editor" he said causing her cheeks to become red.

"You read that?" she questioned after closing the classroom door "Sometimes I can't control myself when I write them. Clarkson is an old friend of mine, I use to write them just for him but he always end up publishing them in vengeance" she was struggling with the amount of paperwork she was carrying, so Severus helped her with some books.

"I'll walk with you" she said.

"Thanks".

"So, vengeance for what?" he asked regaining their conversation.

"He has tried to offer me a job at his magazine for years but I always reject it… I'm not interested on becoming a writer, I like teaching"

"Someday you should explained that to me while having some tea… because the longer I work here the less I like the job" he made her giggle and he turned around so she didn't see him smiling. "Where are we going?" he asked.

"Oh, I have to return the books you're carrying to the library and hand these parchments to Poppy…"

"What about the books you're carrying?"

"I have no more classes today, so I was planning on going to the watch tower and finish my last readings"

"You're reading three books at a time?" he asked surprised and she just replied with a smile.

They kept talking about random things until they arrived to the library, where Minerva returned the books while Severus stayed outside with the rest of her papers.

"I think I can manage myself with these" she said taking her things back "Thanks you"

"You're wellc-" he stopped and she wondered why. His eyes were looking at the ceiling and she followed them with curiosity. "Mistletoe" he regained his voice.

"Yes" she said stepping closer to him. They kept looking at the flower above their head while some kind of force made them approach each other, to the point that they were just separated by the books Minerva was carrying. Severus was the first to take his eyes down to her lips, which she bitted softly suddenly feeling the urge of tasting his. What was happening to her? She looked at him, his face was coming close and closer, and she closed her eyes. It was fast, too fast… as soon as their lips touch each other's mouth, they moved apart.

Her books and papers felt to the ground noisily, but they ignored it. They both looked at one side and the other of the corridor and then to each other. Nobody had seen it, but it had happened. "I'm sorry" they both muttered at the same time, "I didn't…" they tried to explained their selves… but they didn't know what to say, so they let an uncomfortable silence to surround them.

"Minerva!" the voice of Rolanda Hooch cut the tension of the moment "Come on? Aren't you coming?"

"Come where?" she asked trying not to sound different than she would normally.

"To Albus' office, of course. The damn old man has trick us all this time"

"What do you mean?"

"The mistletoe, it's cursed"

"What?" Severus suddenly yelled.

"Yes, it forces the two persons under it to kiss each other, that's why he was so happy to just hang up twelve this year. We're all going to curse his ass now, so… are you two coming or not?"

Minerva and Severus looked at each other and somehow felt relieved that they didn't need to explain themselves anymore.

"Yes, of course" she said.

"In a moment" he added, bending to pick her books and papers from the ground.

…

TO BE CONTINUED…

**A/N:** Hi, I hope you enjoyed this part. I feel prouder of my writing in this chapter, though I know it's still not perfect. I'll try to write the end on the next part, I just felt it was good to stop here and have a rest before I spoiled everything, as I usually do…

In case someone has read this far, I'm giving a thought to getting a beta reader to help me with my grammar. I'd like someone who enjoys my stories so if anyone is interested I invite you to send me a Private Message. In exchange, I could help you with your story-plots or if you study Spanish I could help you with it ^.^

Have a nice Christmas Holiday and a Happy New Year!


	3. Chapter 3

**_I'm sure you're tired to hear my apologies every time I come back after weeks of disappearing, so I'll just say it's been impossible for me to find time for FanFiction, even to read my favorite author's new chapters, for what I'm really very sorry._**

**_Anyway, let me tell you why I'm back today: in the first place, because in the last few days I've received new reviews for old fanfics that made me realize that I've been very inconsiderate with the people who were waiting for my updates; and in second place, because today I learnt in the English newspaper The Guardian that our dear JK Rowling is about to publish a new book, that has nothing to do with HP, but it's good new anyway. ^.^_**

**_Now, I leave you with this very bad chapter. I don't like it, you judge it. I guess I'm just out of shape. ;-)_**

…

**Mistletoe – 3**

Albus was doing some boring paperwork when he heard some noise coming from the halls, he looked up wondering what it would be when all of a sudden his office's door was blown up by some spell. After a cloud of ashes and smoke, the school staff came inside and invaded the room.

"You damn old bastard" Rolanda cursed aiming her wand to him "... I'm gonna…"

"Rolanda, please…" Poppy tried to calm to calm her down, taking her friend's wand before anyone was harmed and looking at Minerva hoping she would say something, but instead of helping, she stepped trying to be unnoticed.

"What's the matter?" Albus asked very calmed.

"You tricked us!" Hooch kept yelling even without her wand. "You hanged cursed mistletoe around the castle"

"So you found out…" he muttered.

"Of course we found out! What did you think would happen?" Poppy joined Rolanda on his loud shouts.

"Oh, please, Poppy, you don't have that much to complain, you kissed with Hagrid, he's more than happy" she then looked back at the headmaster "I had to stand the filthy lips of Filtch"

Albus couldn't keep his laugh for too long and Rolanda jumped over his desk but Pomona and a couple more teachers could stop her.

"Albus, this is crazy, I found myself kissing a cat" Filtwick said with his very low voice, and everybody shared their experiences with the cursed flowers except for the potions master and the transfiguration mistress, who were trying to disappear among the crowd until Sybill noticed her.

"Minerva, what about you? You're always our spokeswoman, say something"

"Yes, say a few words to this old crazy wizard and put him in his place as always" Rolanda encouraged her friend.

"I…" Minerva muttered, finding herself speechless for the second time that day "I think that…" unconsciously, or so she thought, she looked for Severus around the room… His eyes were as unexpressive as always. "I think that you've made me lose my precious time for nothing. So get back to your jobs, I'm tired of this childish behavior of all of you." After that she left leaving everybody surprised by her reaction.

"What's wrong with her?" Severus heard somebody ask.

* * *

><p>Later, at the watch tower, Minerva was startled by a man's voice.<p>

"The girls are looking for you, you know" Severus said walking towards the edge, where she was sitting down with a book on her hands.

"I guess" she replied while standing up.

"You'll be happy to know that Albus has retired the mistletoe and promised not to hang it anymore"

"He's the most powerful wizard of our time and he can act like such a crazy kid sometimes…"

"I know… Can you imagine Pomona kissing Hagrid?" he said not hiding his laugh.

"What about Ro and Filch? I would have paid to see that." They both laughed crazily and then looked at each other. It was getting dark and the sky had a magic mixture of reddish colors.

Without even taking his wand out, Minerva was able to transfigure the book she'd been reading to a little branch of mistletoe that flight above their heads.

"We didn't follow our tradition right this afternoon" she said offering her hand to the man in front of her. He held it, and they shook hands without breaking that intense look they were sharing. Then, all of a sudden, she felt herself pulled closer to him… but it was no mysterious force, but his hand, and then his other arm around her waist… She stopped breathing, or so she thought, while his lips moved closer and closer until she could feel them, taste them…

"Severus…" she muttered "This can't be right. What are we doing?"

"We're just kissing under the mistletoe" He said before they kissed again.

THE END.


End file.
